罗伯特·彭斯的抒情诗《一朵红红的玫瑰》自1908年以来在中国不断被翻译。翻译家苏曼殊、袁水拍、袁可嘉、郭沫若身处不同社会环境，学术背景不同，译者身份各异，最终体现为不同的翻译选材、翻译目的和翻译风格。苏曼殊和郭沫若均古体译诗，呈现出务实甚至超务实的特征；袁水拍和袁可嘉采取白话韵译，求真与务实兼具。

Robert Burns’ lyric poem “A Red, Red Rose” has been translated incessantly in China since 1908. The four translators — Su Manshu, Yuan Shuipai, Yuan Kejia and Guo Moruo lived under different social backgrounds. They also differed in academic backgrounds, personal identities, and, consequently, in their translation materials, translation purposes and translation styles. Su Manshu and Guo Moruo both employed classical poetic forms, an approach characterized by utility-obtaining and ultra utility-obtaining; Yuan Shuipai and Yuan Kejia adopted vernacular rhyming translations, an approach characterized by both truth-seeking and utility-obtaining.